Passive Aggressive Heroes: A Round Up

Passive Aggressive Hero of the Year – Independent Theatres

As you may or may not know, the comedy movie The Interview, starring James Franco and Seth Rogen, was pulled amid terrorist threats over its content. Related appearances have also been canceled. While I totally understand theatres not wanting to court danger, particularly with The Dark Knight Massacre still fresh in the public consciousness, allowing people who consider any movie with Seth Rogen in it to be something worth getting worked up about to dictate what movies can or can’t be seen in another country leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

One Last Time? Always

As some of you may know, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are banned books. So stick it to the Saurons of the world and go see The Hobbit: The Battle of The Five Armies this week.

Another Year of Banned Books

Merry met, my dear readers. It seems my blog has been around for another year. And it has been quite the year here at the Bound and Gagged Banned Books Blog. One of my posts was Freshly Pressed, another was quoted in The Huffington Post, and we went from about 50 followers to over 2,000. So whether you’re new to the blog or have stuck by us since the beginning, thank you. Thank you for reading, sharing, commenting, and taking the time to come to our little corner of the internet.

This year we also gained two excellent writers. Hannah and Victoria Lepore were both kind enough to grace the blog with their thoughts, rants, and insights, joining me and Elliot Oberholtzer on our banned book crusade. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all three of them for contributing to the blog, for taking the time to write such thoughtful reviews, and for being generally awesome human beings.

I hope you’ll all stick with us for yet another year of banned book reviews, censorship news, and the occasional nerdrage. Banned Books Week is fast approaching, so check back for more Bound and Gagged goodness (not nearly as kinky as it sounds). In the meantime, enjoy this look back at the last year of banned book reviews.

Giving, Receiving, and Wanting

Phew. I just got back from seeing the film adaptation of The Giver, and I am pleased to report that the terrible, sinking feeling I have had ever since they started releasing trailers for it (actually, ever since they announced Taylor Swift was in the cast) was unwarranted. Obviously no film adaptation is ever actually going to do everything right, but I do feel that this one did enough right that I am glad to have seen it, and feel comfortable recommending it to others. I have done my best to leave spoilers out of this review, but the few parts where spoilers were necessary I have put in white text. If you are okay with spoilers, highlight the blank spots in between plus signs to reveal.

Book to Screen a Give and Take

Readers! I bring you the trailer of the upcoming movie adaptation of banned classic The Giver by Lois Lowry. If nothing else, the sudden surge in popularity of dystopian novels, particularly aimed at younger audiences, has allowed this movie to exist after Jeff Bridges tried for years to make it happen. I have a lot of mixed feelings about it. I really don’t like the characters being aged up and the medication being changed to injections because it makes the creepy shit seem more palatable or more overtly dystopian sinister rather than our own society’s creepy behavior mirrored back at us.

Fire Beats Iron, Ice Beats… Lion?

I know some of you may be sick of talking about women in the media or The Hunger Games, but, hey, the default picture on this blog is me in period dress holding Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince aloft like the Holy Grail so you knew what you were getting into.

You’ve probably seen more than a few articles about Catching Fire and Frozen’s domination of the box office.  However, according to this article from The Mary Sue, Frozen’s success has continued, having the best box office weekend of any film in its sixth week. It’s even poised to overtake The Lion King for highest grossing Disney animated film of all time.

A Song of Ice and Fire: Politics, Performance, and PTSD in Catching Fire

REPEAT OFFENDER: Catching Fire (2013)

THE REVIEW: While I’ve already talked a lot about it here on the blog, I finally got around to seeing Catching Fire (you can find my review of the book here and a shorter review here). All I can say is Damn. Dayum. This is one movie not to be missed. Even in the age of Netlfix and increasingly large televisions, seeing Catching Fire on the big screen is worth the price of admission.

Let the Games Begin

So, while I have yet to see Catching Fire on the big screen, The Hunger Games franchise has certainly been on my mind, between its box office success showing that female-led action films are more than viable; its interesting gender dynamics (and not just because the woman is the hero); and all of the political discussions surrounding its message, such as the Harry Potter Alliance’s Odds In Our Favor campaign.

Reader Beware, You’re in For a Scare

Greetings, readers new and old. As my readership seems to have doubled overnight, I want to take the time to thank you for reading, commenting, and following, whether you’ve been with me since the first banned book review over a year ago or just stumbled across me this week. If you haven’t already figured it out, this blog is dedicated to banned books, censorship/intellectual freedom issues, and other assorted geekery and media. Feel free to browse the archives and get to know me, my other talented writers, and the blog a little better.

Set Fire to the Screen

As we seem to be on a Military power/anxiety, child soldier, PTSD theme this week, I bring you a new trailer for Catching Fire I found on The Mary Sue.

The music is weirdly upbeat but Katniss looks suitably traumatized. As Catching Fire is banned along with the rest of The Hunger Games Trilogy, I’ll be reviewing both the book and the movie. If you need a Panem fix before then, you can find my reviews of the first book and movie here and here.

May the odds be ever in your favor.